The sails of the schooner Alert have become a hallmark of the Harpswell landscape as the vessel cruises along the town’s coastline and islands.
On board the 70-foot wooden sailboat, guests ride the rolling waves of Casco Bay as they take in whipping winds, swinging sails, and — if they’re lucky — glinting, golden light from the sunset.
Captains Bethany McNelly-Davis and Perry Davis guide the vessel — but they don’t sail it alone.
When visitors board the Alert, before long, they’re literally learning the ropes. They hoist sails and follow commands. The captains put all willing hands to work aboard their boat, which can host up to 28 guests for sailing trips from two hours to a full day.
The couple has run sailing charters from Bailey Island since 2006, starting with their 31-foot sailboat Tevake, which can hold six passengers. They acquired the Alert in 2013 and a 122-year-old Friendship sloop, Gannet, in 2023. The Gannet also can host six guests.
Bethany and Perry quickly teach passengers the basics of sailing on each cruise, breaking up guests into teams and teaching them lingo like “haul away on the peak.”
While Perry mans the steering wheel and Bethany helps passengers with the sails, their daughters, Margaret, 12, and Calypso, 9, balance on the masts and swing through the rigging. They also tie knots, demonstrate safety procedures and entertain guests.
“It’s like a puppet show!” the girls yell from above as their shadows show through the sails.
Margaret and Calypso have grown up on sailboats and, despite their young age, are confident sailors. As a family, they take trips to windjammer and schooner festivals in Boothbay Harbor and Gloucester, Massachusetts, where they sleep on the boat.
“Finding a job where we could work together was really a driving force,” Bethany said about starting the sailboat charters with her husband.
Bethany grew up on Bailey Island, the daughter of Donna McNelly and the late Les McNelly. The family has long owned and operated Sea Escape Cottages, a cluster of a half-dozen vacation rentals on the island. Bethany learned to sail as a kid at the Orr’s-Bailey Yacht Club.
Bethany earned a degree in architecture at Roger Williams University before taking a job on a windjammer in Rockland.
Perry grew up in Oklahoma and Colorado and worked as a raft guide before moving on to a job on a private yacht, where he was working when he met Bethany at a bar in Camden.
The couple’s love story has been set against a backdrop of billowing sails and rolling waves as they continued to work and adventure together on sailboats. At one point, they sailed to the Bahamas, where they lived for a time.
Bethany’s parents visited them in the Bahamas and witnessed a sunset celebration, when sailors blow into conch shells as a call-and-response ritual. Les, Bethany’s father, loved the tradition so much he came home with a suitcase full of conch shells.
Later, when the couple would take out groups for sunset cruises on the Alert, they would blow into a conch shell and wait for a distinct, rhythmic response from Les on shore. Les died in November, but not before teaching his neighbors to recognize the signal. Now, when Bethany blows the conch from the Alert, those neighbors call back from shore with their own shells.
The family also fires a miniature cannon as another tradition. For a brief moment, a trip on the Schooner Alert evokes a voyage on a pirate ship. Once the smoke clears and the echoes cease, the relaxing sound and rock of the waves take over as passengers enjoy the sights of Casco Bay.
The Alert was designed and built by Paul Rollins. The York boatbuilder launched the schooner as Tall Cotton in 1992, according to Sailing Ships Maine. Bethany and Perry first saw it in a 1994 magazine.
In 2006, Roger Woodman bought the boat and outfitted it for commercial fishing out of Portland. When Bethany and Perry bought it seven years later, they converted it for sailing charters.
Like many businesses in Harpswell, the Alert finds most of its customers during the summer months. The family spends the offseason maintaining their boats and cottages and preparing for another season on the water.
“Life heading a circus isn’t easy. This is the part after the tents have been set up. This is the show,” Perry said about the summer charters.
In the early days, they relied on a combination of word-of-mouth advertising, handing out brochures and even going door to door. During the pandemic, they struggled to find supplies for fixing their boats.
Running a business on the water carries unique challenges. Sailing is entirely dependent on the weather, and a rainy season makes business hard.
“Weather is one of those things I can’t control,” Bethany said. “You find the best part of the day and you make the best of it.”
On board the Alert, observing the scenery and learning to sail aren’t the only fun parts. The captains narrate each sail with humor and facts about boating and local history while they point out landmarks and nature sightings, like porpoises swimming alongside the boat and osprey nests atop channel markers.
“I enjoy the industry, I enjoy the people, I enjoy old-fashioned boats,” Perry said.
“You have to love it, because if you don’t love it, it’s too much work,” Bethany said.
